Rick Snyder on Jobs

MAT2: Michigan Advanced Technician Training for skills gap

Continuing the administration's laser focus on creating an environment that encourages job growth and prosperity includes:

Making Michigan even more welcoming to immigrants with advanced academic degrees or entrepreneurial aspirations, allowing
the state to benefit from their countless contributions, including job creation.

Stepping up efforts to connect job providers and talent.

Expanding the Michigan Advanced Technician Training (MAT2) program, an employer-driven initiative that helps
employers bridge the "skills gap" through a statewide system for training and educating skilled technicians to fill high-paying jobs.

Continuing the successful Community Ventures program, a public/private/nonprofit partnership created to hire at
least 1,000 structurally unemployed residents from distressed neighborhoods, initially in the cities of Flint, Detroit, Pontiac and Saginaw. First-year goals have been met, resulting in jobs for over 1,400 structurally unemployed residents.

Quietly signed law making Michigan a right-to-work state

As thousands of union members protested outside his office building, Snyder unceremoniously signed a law one year ago making the organized labor bastion of Michigan a right-to-work state.

When Snyder backed the law making workplace union membership
optional after long saying the contentious issue was not on his agenda, it reshaped his persona as an apolitical chief executive focused on fixing the state's problems. But the Republican governor's supporters say the fervor of right-to-work was
overblown by Democrats and their union allies who stand to lose the most from a prohibition of compulsory union dues.

The law went into effect on March 28, so it is too early to calculate its effect on statistics for union membership statewide and dues
collections by Michigan unions. But it has reinvigorated labor and Democratic opposition to Snyder. The Snyder administration has argued the governor is staying focused on creating an environment for more and better jobs.

Extend unemployment benefits; plan for future

About 35,000 Michigan residents will continue receiving extended unemployment benefits under new legislation.

These benefits are a lifeline for many Michigan families who are struggling. Cutting them off so abruptly would have jeopardized the well-bein
of those who are trying hard to find work. Now we must renew our focus on improving Michigan's economic climate. We will continue driving forward with our job-creating reforms so that fewer people need to rely on unemployment benefits.